Inspiration: Decorating With Old Book Pages

A trip to my local junk shop's book sale this morning had me thinking of all the creative possibilities that could come out of the piles of beautiful but mostly decrepit old books overflowing from the shelves. Many were missing pages or had pages falling from them— the perfect kind for good book art!

Now, I'm fully aware that many of you will find this book defamation business to be downright immoral, and I'm by no means advocating going out and ruining perfectly intact books. But as a rummage sale and thrift store junkie, I can assure you that there are plenty of good bad-shape books out there that are just calling out to be made into something new and beautiful. And here are just a few new and beautiful ideas...

•1. For my friend Ruth's wedding last year, her very talented sister/artist, Lucia, created a branch with book page leaves to hang over the entrance to the reception. It was so fitting for their very literary family. •2. The talented Erin of Dandelion and Grey added a little nostalgic romance to her chandelier with vintage book pages.•3. UK based artist, Veronika, of Sarah & Bendrix, made these beautiful book page hearts out of an old encyclopedia.•4.Country Living has a great tutorial for turning old books into 3 D art and "vases." which you can check out here (slides 8-11).•5. Old book pages would also make an interesting wallpaper alternative. According to Country Living (slide 6), you can apply them with conventional wallpaper paste.•6. Craft Kellie made a beautiful ribbon curl wreath with old book pages, perfect for the holidays and beyond. Check out her tutorial here.•7. We love artist, Tamar Morgendorff's beautiful book page decoupaged birdhouse sculptures.•8. Matthew Meade's book centerpiece is similar to the Country Living exhibit above.